Procrastination a personality trait

You're sitting at your desk, and you've got work to do.

Maybe it's your 2007 accounting. Maybe it's an essay for that medieval history course. Heck, maybe it's even a newspaper article on procrastination. Regardless, it's not going well, so you decide to go to the fridge for a snack. But to get at the yogurt, you have to move the pickle jar. It sticks to the fridge. Disgusted, you grab a cloth and clean it. In the process, you find more fridge gunk. Won't take long to clean this shelf, you tell yourself. So you keep going.

And at this time of year, we're more apt to think about changing our lives, but all too aware that those good intentions often get waylaid.

We're all guilty of inaction, but Mr. Pychyl, who's a psychology professor at Carleton University and director of the Procrastination Research Group, says we often use the word incorrectly and sometimes beat ourselves up with it.

"A lot of us are busy, and at the end of the day, some things don't get done, but that doesn't mean you procrastinated," he says. "Procrastination is when you find yourself doing the classic things -- alphabetizing your spice rack, or organizing your shoes. You've never cleaned the fridge in your life, but today is the day. But when you're doing things that are as important as your work, that's not procrastination."

Nevertheless, classic procrastination is a problem. University of Calgary studies report that about 25 per cent of people "chronically procrastinate." Mr. Pychyl says technology -- think Facebook, e-mail -- is a major player in inadvertent procrastination. The same university researchers found that technology-related procrastination has jumped from five to 25 per cent in recent years.

When he studies procrastination, Mr. Pychyl looks at personality traits and situations. For example, if talking on the phone is something we dislike, don't find meaningful or have difficulty with timing, we're likely to put it off. What we need is a plan for completion.

Personality also comes into play. Mr. Pychyl looks at five primary personality traits: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience and extroversion. People most likely to procrastinate are those who are not the most conscientious. They're also impulsive, and that can be related to extroversion or neuroticism.

People who are impulsive are liable to procrastinate because "they can't protect one intention from another," he says.

Although many give it as a reason for procrastination, some procrastinate out of fear of failure. Others do it in reaction to a socially prescribed perfectionism (like the last-minute Christmas shoppers who feel they can't find the perfect gift).

A small number of procrastinators do so because of the rush they get from leaving things until the last minute, Mr. Pychyl says.

A concept he calls "temporal discounting" -- discount future rewards -- accounts for some procrastination. That's not surprising if we take an evolutionary perspective.

For hundreds of thousands of years, we were creatures whose futures were uncertain, so the short-term gain made more sense. But, he points out, in the modern world, that approach makes less sense.

So what does the procrastination guru suggest for succeeding at our New Year's resolutions?

First, set realistic goals.

It doesn't make sense to say you're going to mark 300 papers in one weekend if you've never succeeded in marking even 100 in a weekend. Or, if you want to quit smoking, plan what you'll do when your buddy shows up at 10 a.m. for a smoke break.

"You have to structure things in your life that help you break out of your habits. And, you have to make the goal a habit. It's really all about self-regulation. A lot of resolution-makers have the 'what the hell factor'. They eat a slice of cake, which blows their diet, then they say, 'what the hell, I've blown it now' and eat the whole cake."

Expect a setback. "At that point, you need to stop, say OK, and regroup."

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